Tapas Engagement: What’s the Real Percentage of Likes and Comments?

[mohammed_kirito]

Hello everyone, I’d like to open up a discussion with you all.

I've been analyzing some data and came across an interesting pattern I think we should talk about.
The topic is simple, yet essential for every creator here:
What is the average percentage of people who actually engage (like or comment) on a series?

After digging through several posts on the Tapas forums and comparing it with some personal stats, here's what I noticed:
Most creators mentioned that only around 3% of their total readers actually click the like button.
And when it comes to comments? It’s often even less.
Some popular series manage to reach up to 10% engagement on their best episodes, but that’s considered a very high mark.

This made me wonder why is that the case?
Are readers simply binge-reading and forgetting to interact? Or maybe they don’t know how much that single like or short comment can actually help boost a story in the algorithm?

So I’m genuinely curious now:
To my fellow creators and readers what’s your experience with engagement?
Do you think 3% is fair? Too low? Does it match your own stats?

Let’s talk about it below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[kyupol]

Here's my graph for ADB

Views

Likes

Comments

Now lets do month of June...
1751 views
237 likes (13% of viewers hit the like button) (237/1751 x 100)
38 comments ( 2% viewers comment) (38 / 1751 x 100)

Are readers simply binge-reading and forgetting to interact?

I think this is exactly the case. In 2025, the reader is inundated with lots of comics to read. So reading webcomics is like doomscrolling. They'd interact if they obviously find something funny or impactful with what they've read.

And in some cases though, I don't think it's "forget to interact". More like they purposely not interacting for fear of offending the author or the fans of the author. Can't really blame them when other webcomic places in the past had a rating system and people get butthurt over criticism of their work. Be it about the art, lettering, subject matter, or whatever is there to criticize.

Then they get reported... which may result in a ban for "offensive comments". Or the fans of the said work, will post retaliatory harassing comments on their work.

So yeah... can't really criticize certain governments (yes. Including so-called "free countries") for censoring certain things they don't like when they act like the said governments they criticize...

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Were you talking of comics or novels? My own interactions (novel/short-story) are near zero. Very near zero.

[moontokkym]

The answer is simple: tapas isn't a locked website, people without an account can read your work. Most people that exist don't have a tapas account, so when you share your story online generally, any interested party will have a look but won't necessarily make an account (and won't necessarily go back and comment everything if they do at the end). This is the same with Youtube.

This added to the fact that one person can contribute to multiple views but only one like and that comments are spiked when there's a conversation between two or more people (with an extra view being registered every time someone comes back to comment in the convo) means that views are always going to be orders of magnitude higher than likes and comments. That's not a failure of the system, and it only feels bad if you don't think too hard about how these metrics are counted.

[bumblebeelz]

Moontokkym has given the actual answer.

I get the feeling you're quoting my post here for those percentages too. I was the only person in that thread to mention 3% vs 10%. If your personal stats match up with mine, cool, but two people do not make up "most creators." And my point was that it's totally normal to have way more views than interactions, for all the reasons Moontokkym shared, and then some.

For example, I've clicked into and subbed to a bunch of stories, but only to bookmark them so I can read them later. I gave those stories a view just by virtue of subscribing, but I haven't read a thing. Which means I'm not gonna drop a like or a comment until I have. And I know I'm not the only person that does this.

Also, I think it's important to consider the audience of Tapas in general when it comes to personal stats. According to a Forbes article from 2018:

"The bulk of the platform’s audience is in the 18-24 demographic, 60% female, according to the company. Chang further estimates that 70% of the creators on the site are women."

I can't imagine the demographics have changed all that much since then, considering the stories that Tapas often features. If your series doesn't appeal to young women, I think it's safe to assume that your personal stats will be worse than someone who writes / illustrates stories that do.

[jwabeasley]

In percentage terms, I'm averaging 5% likes and 0.8% comments. And that's fine. Excellent, even. As the other two told you, the vast majority of readers don't have Tapas accounts and even if they do they don't usually 'like' things. I'm the same way on YouTube, I only 'like' videos I want to be able to find again or that really knock my socks off.

There is higher like/comment engagement from us fellow creators on the forums, but most creators prefer that non-creators see their work. Taking that into account, a high comment/like ratio is undesirable.

You can't get hung up on these extrinsic rewards and stats. Your work is very new still, plug away at it for a year and then you might think about how well the stats reflect on your webnovel and marketing strategy.

My best advice for managing this feeling you have is to find another couple webnovels in the same genre that started at the same time as yours. Compare your stats to theirs, pay attention to what they're doing for marketing. It helped me a lot at the beginning - I left my comparison buddies in the dust a long time ago.

In the meantime, if more comments and likes are what you want, put that energy out into the world and like/comment on other creator's works here in the forum! I've made some good art friends that way.

[GiveMeThatBread]

I think it honestly, truly depends on the story, author, prior reader base, etc.

Despite being 300 chapters in, I average around 20 comments, and that's with some hundred views. Of course, this grows overtime as readers find the story and engage themselves.

I don't think readers simply "forget" to engage. Many take a break until more chapters are available. Maybe some stopped reading entirely. I personally do not beg for engagement like, "Please like and sub!" because it's sort of a turn off as a consumer.

In the end, people will comment when they want to. Same with likes. Most do not engage at all except read.